Private equity giants faced brutal market whiplash after riding the post-pandemic deal boom wave. The sector got hammered when liquidity suddenly dried up—a pattern that echoes what we've seen across crypto and DeFi markets.

Thoma Bravo's Seth Boro recently broke down how major acquisition firms are navigating this fallout. The parallel is striking: both traditional finance and crypto experienced explosive expansion followed by a liquidity shock. PE firms that overleveraged during the easy-money era are now scrambling to adjust.

What's fascinating is how these macro cycles ripple across asset classes. The 2021-2022 boom-bust sequence hit everyone—whether you were buying software companies or yield farming. Boro's insights on capital allocation strategy during liquidity crunches apply surprisingly well to how protocols and funds should be positioning themselves.

The lesson: when the music stops, those who over-extended don't just feel the pain—they reset how they think about risk management entirely. Worth studying if you're thinking about market cycles and capital structure.